The DC artisans who paint landmarks gold — and the surprising tool they use
NBC4 WASHINGTON
www.nbcwashington.com
By Mark Segraves, News4 Reporter • Published August 20, 2024
Gilders Studio has done the iconic Mormon Temple near the Beltway, Union Station and, now, the old Georgetown bank dome.
For more than 100 years, the gold dome atop the old Farmers and Mechanics Bank has stood watch over the intersection of Wisconsin and M streets in the center of Georgetown.
As with most things a century old, time and weather has taken its toll on the gold dome, and PNC Bank, which now owns the building, is having it re-gilded.
“This is such a landmark space for all of Washington, D.C., and we wanted to do it right. It was not a space that we were going to do kind of half-dollar. We wanted to make the right investment for a landmark space that we have here in Washington, D.C.” said Jermaine Johnson, regional president of PNC Bank.
The work is delicate, painstaking and expensive.
Locally-owned Gilders Studio, renowned for its work around the world, is re-gilding the dome.
“We’re native Washingtonians and we have looked at this dome for years, and when it started to deteriorate, you know, 10-15 years ago, we really thought, ‘We really want to do that, and we’re so happy that we were able … to do that, and it’s here in D.C. It’s local,” Gilder Studio’s Michale Kramer told News4.
The gilders are artisans who are specially trained in the time-honored technique.